Marketing
athletes is one of the most appealing aspects of being a sports agent. As a
young agent progressing through the business, the realization that sponsors and
endorsements do not come easily is becoming evident. While convincing companies
to spend large sums of money to have athletes endorse their products is
difficult enough, a new hurdle has made things even more difficult.
Over
the last few years, numerous athletes have created bad publicity from scandals
and off-the-field behavior. Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Ryan Braun, Aaron Hernandez, Michael Phelps, and Tiger Woods were all endorsing major brands when
their scandals became public knowledge. Most of the companies endorsing these
athletes immediately terminated their contracts while a few others gave these
athletes the benefit of the doubt. In both cases, these companies and their
brands were damaged in the public’s view. This has created a lot of hesitation
amongst companies to further endorse athletes in fear that their brands may be
weaken instead of strengthened.
Nowadays,
nearly every endorsement contract contains a morals clause, which allows a company to terminate or take corrective action against an endorser who is
damaging the company’s name due to inappropriate or immoral behavior. Even
though companies have this clause to fall back on, the potential damage is
often too great for the company to tolerate.
The
good news is that some sports agencies are beginning to offer training programs to help athletes create personal brands. While some athletes may not actively
think about their personal brand, these training programs will most likely
force athletes to think about their personal brands. Although this training
doesn’t create or change an athlete’s character, forcing them to think about
their personal brands may greatly diminish some of this poor off-the-field
behavior. In turn, companies may regain the trust in athletes and the
endorsement deals will become a great source of athletes’ incomes once again.
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